On Thursday, December 25, 2025, Christi woke up at 0500, before first light. Warderick Wells basically has zero lights and it was cloudless (which was rare), making the stars especially vibrant. She sat outside for a few minutes and saw a shooting star! This was the dawn.
Some of the other parents organized a scavenger hunt around the island for the kids. in the morning, Keith went on the scavenger hunt. Here was a shot of the group.
Christi and Eric stayed aboard. Christi made food for the potluck and Eric did small odds and ends around the boat. One of the things he did was change the Seagull Water filter (the extra filter for our drinking water). It was definitely time.
At one point, Eric noticed that a shark was circling our flopper stopper. It did that loop for a while.
Not long before it was time to go, the AC gave us a warning error. Eric did a little investigating and didn’t see any obvious problems, so he turned it off and will look into it more later.
The potluck was supposed to start at 1430, but at about 1400, the ranger made an announcement on the radio to not arrive until 1500. We arrived right on time and so did just about everyone else. The ranger’s home was lovely. It looked like the living space was on the second floor. This was the view of the anchorage Kosmos was in.
And a view of the ranger station and The Horseshoe beyond it.
We were surprised at how many cruisers came. It was a big group!
There was a large wrap around deck. The deck overlooking the south end of The Horseshoe was quite large. It was the primary eating area, with several tables. One side of the deck had an assortment of chairs so people could sit and eat off their laps. One side was where people lined up to enter through the a side door near the kitchen (photo above). The kitchen counters and dining room were covered with big trays of food — the trays were crammed together as tightly as possible. People got their food, then went out the front door to the deck to eat.
We were amazed at how much food there was. And it was so good! The ranger’s family must have cooked for days and days to prepare such big quantities of food. It was very kind and generous for the rangers to host such an elaborate event in their home for total strangers.
The children ate quickly and then ran off. Christi and Eric weren’t sure where they went. The adults stayed on the deck and socialized. Both kids and adults had a wonderful time. Despite the large crowd, there was a lot of food leftover.
Shortly after the sun went down, Christi and Eric rounded up Keith and headed back to Kosmos. On the ride back, we reflected on how much we appreciated the nice day. We didn’t have a good Christmas in 2023 or 2024, so we relished finally having a nice celebration. In 2024, we were at sea, so we didn’t celebrate. In 2023, Eric’s mom had an emergency that overshadowed celebrating. This was the rock that we were anchored near.
Not long after returning to Kosmos, all three of us headed out again. Tiki Tour had invited a group of people to hang out at their boat. It was a fun group and we had a great time.